By IANS,
Salient points about INS Arihant, India’s first indigenous nuclear submarine, and the reactor on board that went critical Saturday, paving way for deploying the vessel after sea trials.
# The miniature nuclear reactor on INS Arihant went critical at around 2.30 a.m. as the submarine went out to sea trials
# Once INS Arihant is inducted, India will join the US, Britain, France, and China by having such technology and prowess
# The 83 MW pressurized light-water reactor was made critical after several “checking and re-checking” of thousands of systems
# The 6,000-tonne submarine is built at the ship-building centre at Visakhapatnam
#During sea trials, various systems on board Arihant will undergo vigorous checks, including firing of its 750-km range K-15 ballistic missiles.
# Sea trials will take at least another 20 months before INS Arihant can become fully operational.
# The 82.5 MW nuclear reactor has been designed at Kalpakkam by PRP Centre – PRP originally stood for Plutonium Reprocessing Project – under the BARC.
# In case of nuclear attack, the submarine will provide second-strike capability.
# INS Arihant is jointly being developed by the Navy, BARC and the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) at the Visakhapatnam naval dockyard.
#Being nuclear-powered, the submarine will not have to surface for two months to breath, like conventional vessels have to.
# The project, earlier known as the advanced technology vessel (ATV), has been under development since 1998.
#The submarine reactor was developed from a land-based prototype located in Kalpakkam, around 70km from here.